476 THE PRINCIPLES OF PERSONAL POWER
reminder of a principle, as immutable as the law of gravity, without
which you can never become a power in your chosen life's work.
There have been times, and many of them, when it appeared that
if I stood by this principle it would mean starvation!
There have been times when even my closest friends and business
advisers have strongly urged me to shade my philosophy for the sake
of gaining a needed advantage here and there, but somehow I have
managed to cling to it, mainly, I suppose, because I have preferred peace
and harmony in my own heart to the material gain that I might have
had by compromising my integrity.
Strange as it may seem, my refusal to strangle my own conscience has
seldom been based on what is commonly called "honesty:' My refusal
to write or speak anything that I did not believe has been solely a ques-
tion of honor between my conscience and mysel£ I have tried to express
what my heart dictated because I have aimed to give my words "flesh:'
It might be said that my motive was based more on self-interest than
on a desire to be fair with others, though I have never desired to be
unfair with others, so far as I am able to analyze mysel£
No one can become a master salesperson if they compromise false-
hood. Even if no one ever catches them red-handed in expressing what
they do not believe, their words will fail in the accomplishment of
their purpose because a person cannot give their words "flesh" if they
do not come from the heart, and if they are not mixed with genuine,
unadulterated Enthusiasm.
I would also ask you to read, aloud, the foregoing paragraph, for it
embraces a great law that you must understand and apply before you can
become a person of influence in any undertaking.
I should point out that I am quite serious when I ask you to read
aloud or memorize certain phrases. It is not that I don't give you full
credit for being an adult, a thinker, an intelligent person, but I know how
likely you are to skip over these vital laws without being sufficiently
impressed by them to make them a part of your everyday philosophy. I